The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to revise its vocational courses to make it more industry oriented, as declared officially on Friday, 3 Aug 2012.

The board has been offering vocational courses at the 10+2 level but now they have changed the curriculum to include the latest developments in the field. These competency based courses offered by CBSE are optional and it is not mandatory for schools to offer each of them.

Now, students appearing in Std XII can choose their scheme of studies as follows. The first subject will be language (English) of 100 marks. Then two subjects have to be chosen from the academic stream (science/commerce/humanities) of 100 marks each. Two more subjects have to be chosen from the vocation course options available for 100 marks each. And one optional additional subject can be chosen from the academic stream again for 100 marks. So students’ scheme of studies will be of 500 marks + another 100 marks for the additional subject.